A matter of nostalgia: How authoritarian traditions shape the distribution of democratic support on the left-right dimension

While several studies have demonstrated that individuals' left-right orientation is linked to their support for democracy, thus far we know little about the historical roots of this association. Drawing on data from the European Values Study (1999--2008), the present study investigates to what degree this association is shaped by countries' authoritarian past. By distinguishing between countries with a democratic, left-wing authoritarian and right-wing authoritarian legacy, we demonstrate that the direction and strength of this association is aligned with the ideology of the authoritarian predecessor and that leftist orientations are linked to lower levels of support in left-wing legacies while the same holds for rightist orientations in countries with a right-wing legacy. In addition, we show that this association can for a large part be accounted for by individuals' support for the authoritarian predecessor and cannot be reduced to individuals' socialization under authoritarian rule. As such, our study highlights the importance of historical contextualization, when inferring shifts on the left-right dimension to changes in popular support for democracy.